The present invention relates to a technology that prevents occurrence of mistakes when inputting information on a credit card during electronic transactions.
Conventionally, electric settlement using a credit card has often been performed in on-line-shopping so that a user can access to websites of electronic shops or an electronic shopping mall or the like via the Internet.
However, there are following drawbacks in such a system. It is common for a user to make mistakes when inputting necessary data in the form or the like on the website. If the number of times for which the input mistakes are made increases, naturally the load on the computer system that hosts the website increases because each time it has to check the input data.
This problem will be explained below more concretely. There are different types and designs of credit cards depending upon the purpose of the card and the card issuing company. It is almost difficult for the user to intuitively grasp which portion in his/her own credit card should he/she see when inputting data.
Therefore, the time required to input the data is apt to become longer, so that a terminal device (node) such as a personal computer of the user is connected to the computer system hosting the website longer. If there is concentration of transactions, and if there are users who are connected to the computer system just because they are taking longer time to input data, the computer system gets overloaded and may crash.
Furthermore, users often make mistakes when inputting particularly the numbers. Basically the user cannot intuitively grasp which data on his/her card is to be input. Errors occur more often when inputting a date such as yy/mm/dd (year/month/date) denoting a valid period of the card is usually represented in order of first, month and secondly, year on the card, so that there would significantly occur a number of inputting errors. As a result, the connection time between the user and the computer system that hosts the website will become longer. Also, the computer system is required to perform error processing each time the user submits wrong data. This eventually increases the load on the computer system.
Such problems will especially occur on on-line-shopping providing websites such as on websites which sale of tickets of popular concerts or sale popular products etc.
Like this, the conventional system has several problems and it is inconvenient and insufficient for both the user and the manager of the on-line-shopping.
Of course, the above mentioned problems exist not only in a system that requires input of data on the credit cards but also in any other systems that require input of information presented on a card having a predetermined format.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of inputting information about a card, an apparatus for processing information about a card, and a computer product in which input error can be prevented when inputting information about a card.
According to the method and apparatus of one aspect of the present invention, the method is executed on a card information input system. The card information input system includes a card information inputting terminal with which an user inputs information related to his/her card and a card information processing apparatus that processes the information related to the card. The card information inputting terminal and card information processing apparatus are connected to each other through a network. An image data of the card is first obtained. Positional information which is an information related to positions of items printed or embossed on the card is acquired based on the obtained image data. Finally, an image data for displaying an input assistance screen is generated, based on the image data and the positional information, that assists the user when inputting personal information that has been printed or embossed on the card.
According to a method and apparatus of another aspect of the present invention, an image data for displaying an input assistance screen, that has been generated by the card information processing apparatus based on an image data of the card and positional information which is an information related to positions of items printed or embossed on the card, is received from the card information processing apparatus. Moreover, the image data for displaying the input assistance screen is displayed. Therefore, input error can be prevented when inputting personal information printed on the card. Further, an input error can be prevented thereby reducing a load of whole of system. Furthermore, fault of convenience of transactions can be avoided owing to lowering of the system.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer program which when executed realizes the method according to the present invention on a computer.
Other objects and features of this invention will become apparent from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings.